My first covert ops mission was crazy; my troops were still somewhat weak, with only basic armor, and getting stuck trying to defend a terminal against 16 spawning EXALT agents with LMG’s, grenades, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, etc, complete with skills such as being able to move and fire their sniper rifles… it was brutal.

Also, in standard battles, trigger Seekers, and in general after stealthing one will move directly to you, and the other will (still, stealthed) circle around. He’ll activate any enemies he passes during that, and can really cause problems.

The first time I encountered a Mectoid, it was because a Seeker managed to activate 3 Mutons and a Mectoid group. He kicked his way into a room my troops were turtled in while firing at the Mutons, and started laying about with his dual plasma rifles. Sweet jesus. All while sporting 20 health and a 6-point energy shield from the Sectoid buffing him.

EXALT missions consist of static pre-spawned groups, and event-triggred ‘parachuting’ groups. Ditto for the new scripted missions introduced with Enemy Within. The parachuting enemies aren’t too bad, depending on how well my snipers are positioned, but I wish they wouldn’t parachute into soldiers.

EXALT are usually not a problem if you avoid turtling and play conservatively, and use the beacons to shut down their weapons. The EXALT AI doesn’t seem to have been properly programmed, and EXALT soldiers won’t fall back when their weapons are disabled, unlike alien enemies hit with the sniper’s disabling shot.

This is, as far as I’m concerned, XCOM2. Sure, the overall story is still the same at it’s roots, but EW has improved gameplay and balance enormously. They’ve fixed a lot of “gimmie” options in the talent trees with badly underperforming talents being replaced or buffed.

Sooooo many new maps, too. I haven’t seen the same map twice yet, in 3 or 4 months play. In addition, the only “Classic” maps I’ve seen have been in scripted story missions.